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Turkey’s behavior in Syria contradictory: Analyst

Friday, 03 February 2017 5:16 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 03 February 2017 5:16 PM ]

This file photo shows a Turkish army tank driving towards Syria in the Turkish border city of Karkamis.

Syria has strongly denounced Turkey’s recent attacks near the flashpoint town of al-Bab, calling on the United Nations to assume its responsibilities and put an end to the violation of the Arab country’s sovereignty.

A former US Senate foreign policy analyst believes Turkey’s behavior in Syria continues to be “mixed” and “contradictory” especially in the form of its armed incursion into the northern part of the war-torn country.

Turkey claims that the military campaign "is primarily against Daesh, but I think most people understand that the main target is the YPG (People's Protection Units) Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria,” James Jatras told Press TV in an interview on Friday.

He also noted that there might be “a risk of a clash” between the Turkish military and the Syrian army in northern Syria as the Arab country's forces are making “some fairly serious advances” against the Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

The analyst further stated that Ankara’s goals are never quite clear, adding that there is some kind of “confusion” about what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s intentions are with regard to Syria.

He went on to say that Turkey’s previous insistence on overthrowing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not really in the country’s national interest and has simply fed the terrorism threat.

“We have already seen the blowback inside Turkey and not so much from the Kurds but from Daesh and al-Qaeda and other Salafist groups,” he added.

Jatras further added that Turkey is not yet a “reliable partner” in solving the crisis in Syria, arguing that it is certainly part of the problem rather than the solution.

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